On Tue, 2012-08-07 at 10:44 -0400, Tom Callaway wrote:
> On 08/07/2012 07:38 AM, Stephen Gallagher wrote:
>> I don't recognize the text of this license in a piece of software I need
>> to package as a dependency. The license listed on PyPi is "Freeware"
>> which doesn't seem right (and isn't a valid option anyway) but the
>> actual license text looks more permissive, except for the bit about "The
>> Software shall be used for Good, not Evil." That clause looks like it
>> might cause us some trouble...
>>
>> Can I get a legal opinion? (The complete sources of the utility are
>> attached, including the license text in question).
>>
>> I'm also going to contact upstream to see if I can get a license
>> clarification.
>
> As several other people have noted, this is the infamous jsmin license.
> The upstream jsmin author takes a perverse pleasure in people ramming
> headfirst into this nonsensical clause, and has repeatedly stated that
> he will not remove it or reword it in such a way to resolve the issues
> it causes.
>
>
http://wonko.com/post/jsmin-isnt-welcome-on-google-code has some of the
> backstory.
Thanks, this is useful to hear. It was exactly the JSMin package I was
trying to deal with. That's most unfortunate. I'll contact the Review
Board upstream and let them know that their dependency on this package
will get them into trouble.
I believe that v8 has a re-implementation of jsmin from scratch to work
around this issue, it may be useful as a replacement.
~tom
==
Fedora Project